Over the past few days, amid the US-Israeli war on Iran, Israeli settlers are reported to have launched a wave of violence in the occupied West Bank.
Since the start of the war on February 28, masked settlers have allegedly killed at least five Palestinians, injured many residents, sexually assaulted and paraded one man, burned cars and homes, and rampaged through villages, according to Reuters reports citing eyewitnesses and rights groups.
While settler violence is hardly new in the West Bank, the latest surge has been enabled by the curbs on movement imposed during the war on Iran, with military roadblocks preventing ambulances from reaching victims quickly, Reuters said.
West Bank — located to the west of the Jordan river — is a part of the Occupied Palestinian Territories along with Gaza. The latest round of violence comes amid the Israeli government’s push for new settlements on the territory “as attention shifts to the Iran war”, according to an Associated Press report.
Human Rights Glance
Israeli forces have entered the neighbourhood of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem to evict 11 Palestinians families from their homes.
A Palestinian toddler was returned from a 10-hour detention by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip with apparent cigarette burns on his thighs, according to medical reports.
Casualty count: Over the three days of the Eid holiday, nine Palestinians were killed—one due to wounds sustained in earlier attacks—and 30 were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 72,263 killed, with 171,944 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 687 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 1,845, while 756 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Up to 10 Palestinians are dying every day in Gaza due to severe Israeli restrictions that prevent them from accessing urgent medical care abroad, the Palestinian health ministry has said.
Dozens of Israeli settlers rampaged across the occupied West Bank overnight on Saturday, torching cars and houses.
When an Israeli settler killed dozens of Palestinian worshippers during Ramadan at the Ibrahimi Mosque in 1994, the shock reverberated far beyond Hebron.





























